Hungarian operator Magyar Telekom said it will provide 6 GB of mobile data free to all small businesses using its mobile services, in order to further the digital development of their business. The data is valid for one month, starting 15 January. The free data allotment can be used both in Hungary and in the EU member states.
The eligible customers do not need to take any particular action to receive the data; Telekom simply notifies them via SMS of the availability of the data volume and automatically activates the access. Customers will first deplete the 6 GB free volume and only after it has run out, switch to the data balance included in their subscription.
The average monthly mobile data usage of Telekom’s SME customers in 2021 shows an increase of 44 percent in the past year. As the external environment changed, the company said, businesses increasingly recognized the benefits of using digital products, which ensured business continuity for many.
Recent data show that nearly 90 percent of Magyar Telekom’s SME customers have a data plan of at least 1 GB, and the number of small and medium-sized business customers with more than 1 GB increased by 12 percent last year. The use of applications related to the cloud, video conferencing and office systems grew the most in 2021 among small and medium-sized businesses.’
Tarifica’s Take
Data use breeds more data use, and that principle applies not only to the consumer sector but to the business sector, as well. Magyar Telekom’s one-time free data offer looks like an attempt to build on a growth trend in data usage among SME’s in Hungary by giving the customer base a quick injection of data as a stimulant.
The promotion’s launch right after the new year is fitting in that the previous year saw a striking increase in data use among SMEs, 44 percent. One might object that with such vigorous growth, there is no need for a promotion right now. Telekom seems to be taking the opposite view, though, believing that this is the moment to give business customers a taste of just what it would be like to have at least 6 extra gigabytes of data available for their operations. Most of them (90 percent) already use 1 GB or more, but a large proportion of those may still not be very far above that 1 GB per month figure, and the one-month trial of 6GB could well affect their usage in an upward direction. Compared to the 44 percent figure, the number of SMEs that used more than 1 GB increased by only 12 percent. So there is clearly room for growth here.
The promotion is particularly powerful in that the 6 GB of data—a very large, generous amount in context—will be provided to all SME subscribers, automatically, without them having to do anything to get it. So they all will find themselves using the free data; no choice will be necessary, and presumably enough of them will find themselves either performing existing functionalities in greater quantities or trying new ones, because they have the data available, that it will lead them to want to purchase that amount of data in the near future.
It should be pointed out that SMEs are a more appropriate target group for such a promotion that large enterprises, because the large enterprises have fewer budget constraints on mobile services and also because their operations are likely to require large allowances, with less room for choice. Also, the inclusion of roaming privileges throughout the EU makes the 6 GB offer more attractive for SMEs that send employees out of the country on job assignments.